CORRECTED: Kroger shares rise 5.7% as profit beats estimates

(Corrects typo to show company is raising its outlook) NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Kroger Co. shares
KR, -0.35%
rose 5.4% in premarket trade Thursday after the supermarket chain reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit and sales. Kroger said it earned $501 million, or 98 cents a share, in its first fiscal quarter, up from $481 million, or 92 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding special charges, the supermarket chain said it had per-share earnings of $1.09. Sales rose 9.9% to $32.96 billion. The FactSet consensus called for earnings of $1.05 a share and sales of $32.7 billion. "Our strong first-quarter results set us up to deliver a 12% [to] 15% net earnings growth rate for the year, partly due to the benefit of Harris Teeter, compared to our long-term growth rate of 8% [to] 11% plus the growing dividend," Chief Executive Rodney McMullen said in a Kroger statement. Kroger acquired food and pharmacy chain Harris Teeter in January. Kroger said it's now raising its outlook for fiscal 2014 and expects earnings to range of $3.19 to $3.27 a share, up from prior guidance of $3.14 to $3.25. Same-stores sales are expected to grow 3% to 4%, up from an earlier range of 2.5% to 3.5%.

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